ATLANTA: Commuters in the US South face frigid temperatures and dangerously slick roads on Thursday after a deadly winter storm thrashed the region with heavy snow and winds that snapped power lines. Schools in New Orleans, Charlotte and Atlanta and across the region cancelled classes on Thursday as winter weather advisories from the National Weather Service (NWS) remained in effect from eastern Texas to Florida and north into southeast Virginia.

In Georgia, two people were fatally struck by a car that slid on an ice patch near Macon, local media said.

“Motorists are urged to use extreme caution, or avoid travel if possible,” the NWS said in an advisory, warning that freezing temperatures would keep roads icy.

Wind chill advisories were in effect as temperatures will feel like they had fallen below -18º Celsius in parts of the Carolinas, Alabama and Virginia.

More than 14,000 households and businesses in North Carolina and Louisiana and in various spots across the South were without power early on Thursday morning, utility companies said online.

The governors of Georgia, North Carolina and Louisiana declared states of emergency because of severe conditions that made roads treacherous.

“We cannot stress it enough for everyone to stay off the roads unless you have no choice,” Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement, saying the storm caused 1,600 traffic accidents.

More than 23 cm of snow has fallen in Durham, North Carolina since Monday, with 18 cm or more measured at various locations across southern Virginia, the NWS said.

The storm caused at least four deaths. In Austin, Texas, a vehicle plunged more than 30 feet (9 metres) off a frozen overpass on Tuesday, killing a man in his 40s, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service said on its Twitter feed.

An 82-year-old woman who suffered from dementia was found dead on Wednesday behind her Houston-area home, likely the victim of exposure to cold, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said.

In Georgia, two people were fatally struck by a car that slid on an ice patch near Macon, local media said.

At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the nation’s busiest with a typical volume of 2,700 arrivals and departures a day, about 470 flights had been canceled by Wednesday afternoon, according to tracking service Flightaware.com.

The sheriff’s office in Oconee County, Georgia, east of Atlanta, tried humour to keep people off icy roads.

“I know you need cigarettes, beer and wine to get you through having your kids at home. Can you just do without for a day? Stay home,” the office said on its Facebook page.

Wednesday’s storm was not the first this winter to bring a blast of frosty weather to the South, where parts of Florida and the Louisiana coast saw their first measurable snowfall in decades.

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were posted across portions of the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

In North Carolina, where more than 2,000 snow-plow personnel worked to clear roads, the state Highway Patrol reported nearly 1,600 traffic accidents during the first 12 hours of Wednesday.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper warned at a news briefing that cold temperatures Wednesday night would make travel conditions even more hazardous.

“The snow is pretty but don’t be fooled,” Cooper said.

In Atlanta, many people appeared to be heeding Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s plea to stay off the roads as only a few cars crept along on typically packed highways. A few people bundled up to go out in temperatures that were well below freezing in a city known for its sweltering summer heat.

“We don’t dare try to get the car out of the garage,” said teacher Kimberly Hodges, 40, who was walking her puppy in the city’s East Atlanta Village neighborhood.

“It’s a mess out here.” The weather in Atlanta is not expected to get above freezing until Thursday afternoon. State government offices and many schools were expected to remain closed until at least then.

In Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, most freeways were closed on Wednesday morning after icing over, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said.

In storm-hit North and South Carolina, more than 32,000 homes and businesses were without power by Wednesday afternoon, utilities data showed.

Agencies